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him, was the Governor-General. Ho, Buxoo, buggy lao, jilda! jilda! (Bring the buggy, quick, quick), shouted the officer, and in a moment sprang into his carriage, and drove off to Government-House, leaving the astonished elerk panic-stricken and aghast. In about half an hour the Commissary General returned, bringing with him an order for the immediate dismissal of the head clerk for inattention to public business, and the appointment of the polite understrapper (should he be qualified for the situation) to the vacancy.

This is not so bad; here is another story, almost as good, told by a different narrator :

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"That was pretty well," said Captain C. when the major had finished his story. "But though an enemy to the neglect of public business, His Lordship was fond of a joke, and could laugh as heartily as any other, even when it was directed against himself. You remember the sensation produced by His Lordship's introduction of the half-batta measure. He was abused most awfully for it, and held up in every possible way to ignominy and contempt. Among other effusions of the day, a song was composed about this concern, in which His Lordship, of course, figured prominently, and was capitally lampooned. This song Lord Bentinck saw. Shortly after its publication, the Governor-General happened to pass through the station, in which the officer, who had the credit of its authorship, was quartered. There His Lordship remained a day or two, and, the evening before leaving it, invited the officers of the different regiments to an entertainment. Poet was of course asked, and of course attended. Supper being over, His Lordship called upon an officer near him for a song. This was given, and another was then called on, and so it went round till it came to the turn of the author of the lyric on the half-batta question. He tried hard to excuse himself, when asked to sing; but the Governor-General would take no exPray Mr- said His Lordship, at least oblige us with one of your own songs.''My Lord ?' · We shall be happy to hear one of your own compositions. Come now, what say you to the song on the half-batta question?' Poor ! I shall never forget the consternation he evinced at that last question, or the almost-suffocating attempts made to repress the mirth, which his awkward situation excited on all sides. However, he could not help himself, and so at last be sung it; and really it was capital fun to see the good humour with which His Lordship bore each successive hit, while the poor vocalist sweated like an ox under the infliction, and seemed to tremble, lest His Lordship should get sore at the thwacks, with which he was obliged, most involuntarily, to belabour him. The song at last ended, Lord Bentinck burst into a hearty laugh, in which the rest of the company joined, and the whole house seemed to shake with our united cachinations. His Lordship soon after retired, and - jumped into his palki unobserved and was off like a shot."

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And here is a third of the same kind; but somewhat milder in degree:

"I can readily credit the story, Captain," said our Colonel, when our merriment at this anecdote had a little subsided," from a circumstance, which came to my own knowledge, while on a visit to Calcutta some years ago. A most abusive letter was written to Lord Bentinck by some one in the me tropolis, who, as he did not belong to the service, and was moreover just about to return to England, cared not a straw for His Lordship, and had the impudence, accordingly, to sign it with his own name, and to send it to the

Government House by one of his own messengers. It was delivered to the Governor-General, who, being at leisure, at once perused it, and ordered that the person, who had brought it, should be called in. When the messenger made his appearance, His Lordship presented him with five rupees, and requested him to give his salaam to his master."

We subjoin one more of the adventurer's stories before we close the book :

A remarkable series of alliances, à la Hymen, took place at Cawnpore in the year 1842. H. M.- regiment - - had, on the formation of the North Western Expedition, marched into Affghanistan, leaving, as usual, its depot, which consisted of about two dozen sick soldiers, half a dozen noncommissioned, and two or three commissioned, officers, and about three hundred women behind it. Some time after its departure, another regiment, composed almost entirely of young and unmarried men, arrived. This corps had been but a short time there, when tidings of the disastrous retreat of our troops from Cabul were received. It was found that the regiment, first alluded to, had been cut up nearly to a man. This was sad news for all, but more especially for the families of the deceased soldiers, whose wives were thus, all at once, left widows, and their children orphans. Tears, crape, and lamentations became with "the ladies" the order of the day, but not, as in England, of the year! They were too wise to think of prolonging their grief for such a period. On the second Sunday after the receipt of the "black dispatches," the banns of some fifteen or twenty couples were read in our hearing at Church. This was followed up week after week for a considerable time, with a continual increase in the number, so that at the expiration of a quarter of a year, out of the three hundred "bereaved ones," only a few remained in a state of widowhood,

This can hardly have been written by an officer in the Queen's service. The only Queen's regiment cut to pieces on the retreat from Cabul was the 44th, and that regiment, we need scarcely say, did not form part of the original expedition to the North West."

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These extracts will suffice to give our readers a just conception of the kind of anecdotes, that are written for home consumption. They are almost worthy of that Mr. Addison, who, some time ago, published in one of the London magazines a series of brief stories illustrative of Indian society, which perfectly astounded the common-place understandings of residents in this part of the world.

Major McMurdo's performance is of a very different kind; but it is written in even worse taste. The great baggage question is really a very important one. It is one that every wellwisher to India would wish to see freely discussed. Certainly, the controversy has hitherto had the benefit of great names. We wish that it had also the benefit of good temper. do not remember any controversy, within our time, that has been conducted with such wretched taste and such wretched temper. Major McMurdo seems to have striven after the at

We

tainment of a climax of bad taste, such as, perhaps, has never been reached by a British officer before. Not content with the wordy weapons within his reach, he has betaken himself to the pictorial. He has embellished his "Reply to LieutenantColonel Burlton's attack," with a frontispiece, in the shape of a wretched caricature, that would disgrace the walls of a canteen. It represents the Frog and the Ox in the fable-Sir Charles Napier, with his spectacles and his beard, figuring as the latter, and Colonel Burlton, with an inflated white waistcoat and a masonic apron, enacting the part of the former. Nothing can be more unseemly, or more injurious, than this manner of debating a great question intimately connected with the efficiency of the entire Indian army. A controversy of such vital importance ought not to be so degraded.

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The dedication to Sir Charles Napier of Major McMurdo's pamphlet is not in much better taste than the frontispiece. "As your Excellency's follower," says the gallant author, "and as the late head of the Quarter Master General's Depart'ment in Scinde under your orders, and therefore having seen the formation and working of the Camel Baggage-corps, I could not read a pamphlet, pretending to be an answer to yours on the Camel Baggage-corps, and written by one 'Lieut.-Colonel Burlton, C. B., of the Company's service, without contradicting the direct errors and mis-statements contained in his few brief comments on your Excellency's letter to Sir John Hobhouse, arising on his part from an apparent ignorance of his profession—if indeed, a Commissary may be called a soldier, belonging as he does to the civil branch of the 'army, and hated as he is by all that is military." This is merely ridiculous. The affected contempt of one Lieut.-Colonel Burlton of the Company's service, who writes C. B. after his name, which it appears that Major McMurdo does not; the expression of a doubt as to whether a Commissary is a soldier; the assertion that he belongs to the civil branch of the army, and is hated (it ought to have been said envied) by all the fighting part of the army-are simply things to be laughed at; and we confess that we do not find it much less difficult to be angry with the insinuation, that Sir Charles Napier's Baggage-corps was attacked by the Commissariat, because "the confusion, that 'Sir Charles put an end to, was congenial to the large fortunes 'made in the Department." When it comes to this, we may be sure that argument is greatly lacking. For men who are not soldiers, the Commissariat officers have received some tolerably hard knocks during the recent wars. For example, in the battle of Jugdulluck, fought by General Pollock in September

1842, the only officer killed was Captain Nugent of the Commissariat.

We have no intention to re-open the Baggage-question in this place. Enough has been said upon the subject in the pages of this journal. But there are some interesting and suggestive facts mentioned in Major McMurdo's pamphlet, which are worth detaching from their context. Here is a passage relative to Sikh tactics, which we have marked for quotation :

The magnificent materiel of our army is the same as of yore; its valour is the same; but its discipline is impaired; while our enemies have acquired discipline, in which they were formerly entirely deficient. A gallant officer, who was prisoner in the late campaign, told me that the march of the Sikh army, from the neighbourhood of Chillianwallah to Guzerat, was one of the best-executed and most magnificent manoeuvres he ever witnessed. Drawn up in order of battle, facing the British camp, Shere Sing first passed his baggage well to the reverse flank of his intended march. He then commenced his march, preserving his order of battle, every battalion keeping its place and alignment for a distance of twenty miles! So perfectly was the order of battle preserved, that the British captive believed our army must have been marching close and parallel to that of the Sikhs, instead of being, as it was on that day, quietly in camp at Chillianwallah! On approaching Guzerat, the Sikh army halted, re-formed line, facing to the rear, and remained in this attitude, till the baggage had passed to the front, and the camp was pitched. Now when 60,000 men, with sixty pieces of cannon, can be manoeuvred in front of a British army in this fashion, it is time for us to rouse ourselves, renew our former discipline, and shake off the unwieldy encumbrances, that clog our movements in the field-the very sight of which, on the march, is sufficient to appal the ablest commander; for (as Colonel Burlton acknowledges) "it is no wonder that a general stands aghast, and fervently hopes his enemy may not detach any light horse to double round his flanks, and fall upon his rear."

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"Let us profit," adds Major McMurdo, "by the warning the late campaigns in India have given us-profit also by the warning which the new era in India will give us; I allude to the introduction of railways. I cannot separate from my mind the conviction, that, however beneficial to the mercantile and 'social communities of India the development of this grand scheme may be, railways will have the effect, ere long, of bringing together the different races in India, from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas. They will know each other's 'sentiments for the first time, and for the first time understand the meaning of combination. There is nothing to fear, if we ⚫ are prepared; but every thing to fear, if we are unprepared." We honestly confess that this had not struck us before. The danger may be very great; but we cannot help saying, that we shall be glad to give the different races such an opportunity of combining against us. Our only fear is that the opportunity is as yet very remote. We wish it were a little nearer.

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When

we have constructed a line of railway from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, we shall be prepared to weigh the cost, and abide the consequences, of bringing the southern and the northern races into contact with each other. With one more brief extract from Major McMurdo's pamphlet we must bring this rambling article to a close:

The hordes of people, of all classes and denominations, who are permitted to follow our armies in India, are not to be conceived! I am told that the bazars after Chillianwallah, and throughout the late campaign, were little short of those at Calcutta! Every description of merchant, mechanic, and profligate were there located, carrying on their different callings and pursuits, as in a great town, and seeming utterly indifferent to the circumstance of a powerful and ruthless enemy being in their immediate vicinity. Indeed I am told that an active correspondence was kept up with the enemy by the merchants in our own bazars: and it is natural to suppose that tobacco and grain were not the only commodities which were conveyed to the camp of the enemy, that Shere Sing was kept informed of every thing that went on, and that not a detachment moved without his knowledge.

We conclude, as we commenced, by saying that, with every inclination to impart something of a more vivacious and sparkling character to our journal-for we have various tastes to consult, and we are anxious to seduce even the thoughtless reader into the perusal of our more solid and instructive matter, by setting before him occasional offerings of a lighter and more attractive kind-we have rarely those opportunities enjoyed by the European critic, who, every week-nay, every day-has some new poem, or romance, or book of travels placed unsought upon his library-table. It is our duty to notice such books, whether published in India or in England, as relate to Indian affairs, and we seldom pass over any that yield materials, either singly or conjointly with others, for a readable article. We might wish the poetry, that comes before us, to be a little better, or a little worse; and we may sometimes desire our prose-writers to be a little more brilliant, or a little more blundering; but we do our best with what is set before us, and are thankful for what we can get.

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